* FRANK EGGINTON RCA (BRITISH / IRISH 1908 - 1990)
CARRADALE - KINTYRE, ARGYLL
watercolour on paper, signed, titled verso
image size 37cm x 52cm, overall size 57cm x 72cm
Mounted, framed and under glass.
Label verso: Gladwell & Company, London.
Note 1: The current auction record price for a watercolour by Frank Egginton of the same dimensions as "Carradale" is £6,600 (premium) Christie's, London 12.05.06, lot 5). It's possible that "Carradale" was a commissioned work because it features far more human architecture than one would usually expect from Egginton. The harbour, fishing boat and houses are painted in intricate detail and "Carradale" is probably the finest Scottish work by Egginton to be offered at auction. Note 2: Frank Egginton, son of the painter Wycliffe Egginton, was born in Cheshire and educated at Newton College and then Newton Abbot College of Art, before spending some time in an architect’s office perfecting his drawing. In 1930 he visited Co. Donegal to paint and continued to return year after year. He exhibited The Calabber River, Co. Donegal at the 1936 Royal Scottish Academy. In 1938 he visited the USA and spent several months travelling and painting the landscape and American Indians in their villages. During the Second World War he worked in a Belfast factory, and in 1946 he moved with his wife to Cookstown, Co. Tyrone. A keen ornithologist, in his younger days he had painted on bird-watching trips in Iceland and Switzerland. He also loved Scotland and worked there from time to time. Between 1932 and 1938 Egginton exhibited a selection of works with Donegal connections at the Royal Hibernian Academy. In 1952 he was part of a joint exhibition at the Victor Waddington Galleries in Dublin with Howard Knee. A regular exhibitor with the Fine Art Society in London, Egginton showed well over one hundred works there. He was primarily known for his watercolours.